The present invention relates to a system of manufacturing a semiconductor integrated circuit. Particularly, the invention relates to a fabrication system for an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC).
Generally, the production of semiconductor integrated circuits is divided and progressed in a design division and a fabrication division, these divisions exchanging information with each other. In the production, design-related information created in the design division needs to be consistent in contents with fabrication-related information created in the design division. Techniques for preventing inconsistency between two types of the information are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (JP-A) No. H 10-79435, which is incorporated herein by reference.
A recent tendency is mainly directed to standardized integrated circuits (ICs) prevail, but ASICs are also supported by particular demands. For example, the demands relate to the realization of system large-scale integrated circuits (LSIs) according to needs of users who attempts discrimination of products from those developed by their competitors and practical use of large-diameter wafers. Since ASICs directly affects clients' products, they should be developed, designed, and fabricated in a close relationship between a client and a semiconductor manufacturer with an organizational system that allow cooperative joint-work organization. This system requires agreements to be made between the client and the semiconductor manufacturer for various matters, for example, work interfaces, design specifications, developing tools, product quality, test data, production periods, and costs.
Recently, attempts have been made to use the Internet, which has been widespread rapidly in these years, for the production of ASICs. For example, according to a system proposed by Quicklogic Corp., a client releases layout data from an FPGA developing tool (FPGA: field programmable gate array) via the Internet. A manufacturing center writes the received data into FPGA chips, and sends completed circuit chips to the client via a normal transporting means. For another example, according to a system proposed by Clear Logic Inc., a client creates layout data for FPGAs of a different company (Altera Corp.), and sends the data via the Internet. A manufacturing center uses the received data, thereby manufactures products of its own, and sends completed products (circuit chips) to the client by means of a normal transporting means.